The Up-Island Regional School District (UIRSD) committee, meeting Monday, chose to keep the region’s school choice policy in place. The school choice formula has been debated over the past year, within UIRSD and the All-Island School Committee (AISC). At issue is the requirement that towns pay for educating the students in their schools, whether the student lives in that town or not. The formula is based on the view that the costs average out over a period of several years.
Though the debate has continued, the outcome on Monday was exactly the same as a year ago. Jeffrey “Skipper” Manter of West Tisbury was the lone vote opposed. Theresa Manning of Aquinnah, Kate DeVane of West Tisbury, Robert Lionette of Chilmark, and Michael Marcus of West Tisbury voted yes.
Mr. Manter, who is also a West Tisbury selectman, told the committee that sixth grade students who use school choice from kindergarten to fifth grade ought to reapply for school choice in sixth grade, as they go into middle school, to give the schools time to allow for circumstances that may have changed over the course of five years, such as student enrollment.
“I think you’re hampering things at the Chilmark School, and I’m not in favor of that,” Mr. Marcus, chairman of UIRSD, said to Mr. Manter.
The school choice issue is entangled with long-term dissatisfaction among some West Tisbury taxpayers over the costs their town bears to finance operations of the Chilmark School. A West Tisbury special committee created by town selectmen (Nov. 8, “West Tisbury selectmen agree to participate in Up-Island School Committee”) has been looking for what they describe as a more “equitable” sharing of school costs among the three up-Island towns that form the district.
Members of the West Tisbury Up-Island Regional School District Allocation Formula Committee are Susan Silk, Doug Ruskin, and Mr. Manter, an ex officio member.
The committee recommended that Chilmark should pay for its own elementary school’s operating costs, a verdict they delivered to West Tisbury selectmen at a meeting on Jan. 18.
The committee called the current sharing setup more than unfair: “The committee members agree that from a financial perspective having the UIRSD operate two school buildings for grades K-5, when one [West Tisbury] is underutilized and able to accommodate the district’s total enrollment, is financially irresponsible governance. Further, having the taxpayers in the UIRSD bear the additional expense of operating the Chilmark School is also financially irresponsible governance.”
West Tisbury has chafed for a decade over the current cost-sharing formula, charging that its taxpayers pay too high a price for the operation of the Chilmark School (June 6, “Aquinnah, Chilmark, West Tisbury selectmen review school report”). West Tisbury selectmen asked the committee to propose a change that “more equitably distributes the cost of educating the District’s children across the District’s three town budgets and ultimately among the taxpayers.” Their decision: Keep the Chilmark School open; let Chilmark taxpayers alone pay its operating costs.
The report explains, “Almost from the creation of the UIRSD the taxpayers of West Tisbury have believed that they are unfairly burdened by the expense of providing that education. The allocation formula recommended here does not alter the budget. And, more importantly, the allocation formula recommended here does not in any way threaten the district’s reputation for quality education.”
Chilmark has rejected earlier reports from this committee (Oct. 20, “Chilmark rebuts West Tisbury school report”).
View the UIRSD cost-allocation formula chart at bit.ly/UIRSDcosts.
In October, the AISC voted 11-1 to approve a change in the superintendent’s shared-services budget formula for the school choice program, initiated by UIRSD. Mr. Manter was again the lone vote opposed, calling it “grossly unfair” to the town of West Tisbury and its taxpayers.
Previously, when a student attended a school in a town in which he or she did not live, the cost of that student was absorbed by that school’s taxpayers. Under the new formula, taxpayers in the town where a student originates will be responsible for the bill. In the new proposal, the funding formula for students now in the school choice program would remain the same until they graduate from eighth grade or leave the district.
“This change will result in a gradual transfer (nine years) of charging school choice students from their attending school to the town in which they reside,” the proposal said.
Safety first
Graham Houghton, student support and intervention coordinator at the West Tisbury School, and Molly Cabral, a guidance counselor at the school, described programs the school uses to prevent bullying by teaching students how to use “emotional intelligence” in their interactions with others.
They discussed the RULER System, a concept developed by a Yale professor, that works to increase children’s self-awareness, helping them learn to navigate different ranges of emotion with various coping strategies. RULER is an acronym for Recognizing emotions in self and others, Understanding the causes and consequences of emotions, Labeling emotions accurately, Expressing emotions appropriately, and Regulating emotions effectively.
Both Mr. Houghton and Ms. Cabral told committee members a student’s education is affected significantly and harmfully when they find themselves in stressful environments. Ms. Cabral said a person’s IQ can fall as much as 30 points when he or she is upset.
“It’s true that kids don’t learn if they’re not safe,” Mr. Houghton said.
Mr. Houghton, along with Donna Lowell-Bettencourt, West Tisbury principal, and Susan Stevens, the Chilmark School principal, agreed that incidence of bullying is extremely low at the two schools, and that when there are incidents, they involve teasing rather than bullying.
Ms. Stevens said the school does not have an issue with bullying, and attributed that to the multi-aged classrooms and recesses, where students seem to stand up for one another more and are positive role models to one another. The school addresses bullying in a variety of ways, in the classroom and in life skills classes, as well as with lessons embedded in their morning meetings, she said.
Richie Smith, assistant superintendent of schools, applauded both schools’ efforts in keeping bullying at bay. He also commended the RULER System. “Self-awareness is huge piece of emotional intelligence,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Smith also addressed recent complaints of discrimination and bullying at Martha’s Vineyard schools, incidents that have targeted children of immigrant families. The AISC formed a Safe Schools Task Force. The task force includes Leah Palmer, the English Language Learners director; Sara Dingledy, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) principal; Elaine Weintraub, MVRHS social studies teacher; Mike McCarthy, MVRHS guidance director; Laura Weisman of Tisbury; Dianne Norton from the ELL department at MVRHS; Matt D’Andrea, superintendent of schools; Fabricio Sornas, who translated English to Portuguese at an AISC meeting; Kris O’Brien, a member of the MVRHS committee; and Colleen McAndrews, chairman of AISC.
They met on March 13 to consider drafting a K-12 Immigration Campus Safe Zone Resolution as a model of what school districts could adopt to designate schools as safe zones to better protect students. There is a template resolution created by Emma Leheny, senior counsel for the National Education Association (NEA), that may be adopted by any school board.
Parents have described challenges in reporting incidents involving their children. Mr. Smith said the task force is looking at ways to address issues in reporting, “to diminish the fear or the anxiety around children feeling like it’s going to come back to them.”
The further away, the better
The UIRSD also discussed the location of Geoff Rose’s future medical marijuana dispensary in West Tisbury. Mr. Rose wants to switch the location from 505 State Road to a proposed new location at 90 Doctor Fisher Road in West Tisbury, just 0.7 miles from the West Tisbury School.
Committee members and school officials said they are concerned about the dispensary’s proximity to the school, and debated which location would better shield students.
Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt said the goal must be to keep students safe, and so “the farther away the better.”
“It’s a confusing time for children,” Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt said.
Several committee members said they understood the need for medical marijuana for pain management and terminal illnesses, but they were not so understanding of recreational marijuana. The UIRSD talked about issuing a public statement saying they are not in support of the sale of recreational marijuana on Martha’s Vineyard.
“I’d be in favor of the school’s position to not support the sale of recreational marijuana on Martha’s Vineyard. Period,” Mr. Marcus said. “That would be the school’s position. I don’t know why the school would take a position other than that.”
The committee took no action on the matter.